Key Legislator Backs Park Inspections

State regulation over amusement parks took a big step forward Monday as Assembly Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa (D-Los Angeles) pledged to vote for a bill that calls for outside inspectors to check rides and for parks to report serious injuries.

The state Senate Appropriations Committee, meanwhile, postponed for a week a vote on a tough park regulation measure by Sen. Don Perata (D-Alameda).

The bill, the stronger of two measures in the Legislature, calls for state inspections of permanent amusement park rides twice a year and public reporting of accidents to a state agency.

The other theme park bill, by Assemblyman Tom Torlakson (D-Antioch), awaits a hearing in the Assembly Appropriations Committee.

Both measures were introduced in the aftermath of the Christmas Eve accident at Disneyland that killed a Washington man and severely injured his wife and a park employee. California is one of 12 states that do not regulate permanent rides at amusement parks.

Villaraigosa said he would vote to regulate the industry, and his influence as the Assembly’s speaker should significantly boost a bill’s chance of success. The Los Angeles Democrat said he supports Torlakson’s measure and predicted that a tougher version of the bill would probably pass the Legislature this year.

“This bill can only get tougher; it can’t get watered down,” Villaraigosa said in an interview Monday. “A bill will pass. Absolutely.”

After returning from Israel last week, Villaraigosa disavowed a statement by his staff that he would work on a compromise that would be palatable to the industry. Up to that point, the speaker said, he had not read the bill or talked to the author or officials from the amusement park industry about it.

Disneyland’s owner, Walt Disney Co., hosted a fund-raiser at Disney Studios last month that brought in $1.2 million for him and other Assembly Democrats.

Villaraigosa said the fund-raiser had been in the works since last year, and his good relations with Disney would not affect his vote on the bill.

The Perata measure has moved ahead more quickly in the Senate than has the Torlakson bill in the Assembly. It was expected to pass the Appropriations Committee on Monday and head for the Senate floor. Instead, the committee postponed considering the bill, along with others that require more than $150,000 in state money. Those bills will be taken up next week.

Perata had amended his bill to avoid the money hurdle by calling for the theme parks to pay for the cost of the inspection program.

He said it was a mistake to include his bill with the others.

But Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Patrick Johnston (D-Stockton) said there was no mistake.

“There’s a common misperception, if you take money out of a bill it doesn’t cost any money,” Johnston said. “Stronger enforcement will bring more costs to the state.”

But Johnston said the delay “should not be interpreted as a negative.”

“It’s sort of a procedural bus stop on the way to the terminal,” said Johnston, who supports Perata’s bill and predicts it will pass the committee.